“Me?”
“Still working with the comrades?”
“Of course.”
“Doing what, exactly?”
“I work on the paper. It’s quite good, actually. There was a falling off after the Pact-reporters jumping ship, you know. But of course the war changed all that. Shoulders together. Now, well, we’ll see.”
“You mean to stay, then?”
“If I can. We’re not exactly Uncle Sam’s favorite publication, but we’re still in business. Browder’s worked miracles. Anyway, this is the place now. Politically, it’s all a bit like your Uncle Arthur, but everything will change after the war. It has to. The pressures will be enormous.”
He stopped as the plates were put in front of them.
“You are the same,” she said, a smile in her voice. “Still on the march.”
“I can’t help that,” he said, catching her tone. “It still needs doing. I grant you, it’s not Spain,” he said, reminiscent again. “It’s a different sort of fight, but as you say, we’re not young anymore.”
“I never said that. I said I was still marvelous.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice lingering. “But married. Who did you marry, by the way? Someone here?”
“A scientist. No one you know. Matthew,” she said, pausing, “I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“No, don’t say that till you hear what it is. Something important.”
“Is that why you looked me up?”
“Yes.”
“Funny. I thought it might be-I don’t know, about us.”
“What, after all this time?”
He didn’t answer.
“There’s nothing about us. Do you understand? I want to be quite clear about that.”
“Why, then?”
“I need somebody I can trust. Or maybe it’s the other way around, somebody who’ll trust me. Who knows me.”
Connolly cupped the receiver closer to his ear, feeling literally like a fly on the wall. The approach, smooth and plausible, was all hers.
“I don’t understand. Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“No, not exactly. We all are, in a way. That’s the point. God, this is complicated. I’m not quite sure where to begin. It’ll seem fantastic to you. It is fantastic. Sometimes I don’t quite believe it myself.”
“Emma, what are you talking about?”
“Right,” she said, verbally sitting up. “Here goes. It won’t make sense, but hear me out. Do you have a cigarette?”
“You smoke now?”
“Oh yes, I’m all grown up.” Connolly heard the match strike. “That’s better. My husband is a scientist.”
“You said.”
“A physicist. Working for the government. We’re at an army base out west.”
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you that,” she said, then caught herself with a nervous laugh. “Sorry. Force of habit. New Mexico. It’s a secret base, you see. They’re very strict about that. They’re making weapons.”
“What kind of weapons?” he said, his voice lower.
“Bombs. Do you know anything about atomic fission? No, I don’t suppose you do. Nobody does. It doesn’t matter. The point—”
“I know what fission is. There was talk before the war. Nothing since. Do you mean to say they’ve actually gone ahead? I thought it was supposed to be impossible.”
“No, they’ve done it. At least, they think they have. They’re going to test it very soon. That’s why there isn’t any time.”
“Do you know what you’re saying? It’s fantastic.”
“Yes. Funny, you get so used to it, you stop thinking about it that way. But it’s real. Twenty thousand tons of TNT.”
“Jesus.”
Connolly had told her ten. He wondered if she had simply forgotten or had begun to be swept up in her own story. Why not twenty?
“It’s capable of wiping out a whole city,” she said. “Berlin, even.”
“Berlin’s gone.”
“Tokyo, then. They’ll use it somewhere. And there’s something new-it’s not just the explosive power. They can reckon that, but no one knows about the radiation effects. They’re going to use it on people and they don’t even know yet what it will do. And there’s no point now.”
“Slow down.”
“No, let me finish. As long as it’s secret, they will use it. Unless someone makes a stink. The scientists can’t-they’re terrified. But if we don’t get the word out somehow, it’ll be too late. They mustn’t, you see. We’re talking about thousands and thousands of lives, and they’ve already won. Someone’s got to stop them.” Her voice slowed. “Anyway, I thought of you.”
“Me? I don’t understand. Do you want me to put this in the paper?”
“No, of course not. They’d arrest you. It’s a military secret-no paper’s going to be allowed to print it. Otherwise the scientists would just leak it.”
“What, then?”
“We need to get the information out of the country.”
“Out of the country,” he repeated slowly.
“To the Russians. They don’t know.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Yes, it is. There isn’t a single Russian on the project. Brits galore, even Germans, but not one Russian. I know, I live there. Think what that means.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I think they’d make one unholy fuss if they found out-maybe enough to stop all this before it’s too late. They’re the only ones who could now.”
He was quiet for a minute. “Do you know what you’re saying?”
“Yes, I know, it’s an awful chance. But someone has to take it.”
“You, for instance,” he said skeptically. “Joan of Arc.”
“No, not me. I’m just a messenger. Someone on the project.”
“Your husband.”
“No, someone else. I’m-I’m seeing someone else. You needn’t look that way. I’m all grown up, remember?”
“Were you all grown up in Berlin too?” he said. “I’ve often wondered.”
“No. Were you? Look, don’t let’s start. It’s a little late in the day for that. Will you help?”
“You can’t be serious. Do you think I’m a spy?”
“Do you think I am?”
He paused. “I don’t know what to think. It’s all so extraordinary. You coming here like this. Bloody thirty-nine steps. What’s it to do with you, anyway?”
“I told you, I’m a messenger. I want to help him. It wouldn’t be the first time, would it? Surely you remember that.”
“That was different. I never asked you to do anything like this. Anyway, why you?”
“Because I know you. I couldn’t think of anyone else. Do you think if I had, I’d have come to you? You’re the last person I’d ask for help. But as it happens, you are the last person. I’m not exactly on speakers with the other comrades. They’d never believe me.”
“But I would.”
